Ryan Hamilton & The Harlequin Ghosts Agree that Fate, Pretty Much, Sucks in The New Song “Jesus & John Lennon”

If one were to hazard a guess, there probably is a surprisingly large number of people who equate Jesus Christ with John Lennon. Like, they both had beards, tons of adoring fans, and have songs about peace, love, and all that hippy-dippy stuff. And, unfortunately, they also suffered the deadly price of Fate.

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“They’re an iconic pair, I know,” laughs Ryan Hamilton who, along with his band The Harlequin Ghosts, has released “Jesus & John Lennon,” the new single from his album Nowhere To Go But Everywhere. “For me, these two are the ultimate examples of how, no matter what, even with the best intentions, things will inevitably go wrong.”

While writing the song, Hamilton had a Jesus or John Lennon moment of his own (depending on who you consider holier). Receiving a bit of godly intervention, one of his own idols, “Little Steven” Van Zandt, helped out with some tunes, including this track. “Stevie came on board as a co-writer for this,” he smiles. “He felt it was a big, important song, and I was thrilled to write it together. Side note: the amazing Mike Peters of The Alarm sings backing vocals on this one!”

While the instrumentation of the song was the culmination of some fortunate divine providence, the subject matter of the song was, in contrast, emotionally devastating and painful. “[‘Jesus & John Lennon’] was originally written in the first person about my marriage falling apart,” he says soberly. “But I took Stevie’s advice about getting it away from myself. It led the song in more of ‘a story’ direction.”

This personal detachment helped separate the emotional crux of this juncture in his life from tainting the music and ultimately brought some light into the instrumentation and gave it a different tone. Instead of a depressing dirge a la Mount Eerie or Red House Painters, he tints it with some honkytonk whimsy and adds levity to a song about things that were never meant to be, “Like the Rolling Stones & Brian Jones / Martin Luther & the Catholic Church.”

After his marriage crumbled, he thought a trek down the fabled American highway Route 66 might heal his grief, but instead, it made his big, wounded heart ache even more. The isolation of that desolate road plumbed his spirits deep down instead of lifting them up. “While it was magical to take that storied route, it was more like driving through a graveyard version of what once was,” he sighs. “Though ominous, it was still darkly beautiful.”

Instead of sparking a rebirth or renewal, Route 66 colored the lyrics of Nowhere To Go But Everywhere (which he describes as “a group of songs about heartbreak and finding yourself”) with a palette of miserable browns and dusty greys. Musically, however, he took a different route. So while he sings such maudlin lyrics as “Just like Jesus & John Lennon, a beautiful beginning / But it’s gonna fall apart,” the mood is buoyed by an upbeat, rollicking skip and a knee-slapping singalong.

But underneath that shine and grin lies a damaged soul. “Do you ever feel like, no matter what, some things are destined to fall apart,” he asks rhetorically and fatalistically. “No matter what you do, the end result is the same. This song is about that.”

“Some things weren’t meant to last / & when the break up comes, it hurts,” he sings, closing out the chorus. It’s a rather depressing couplet that, like, Hamilton’s marriage, ends in a bleak and heartbreaking demise. It’s a fitting coda, after all, for a song named for two bearded guys with adoring fans who were unfortunately doomed from the start. Hamilton will undoubtedly agree here that Fate, for all intents and purposes, pretty much sucks.

If you dig this tune and want to pre-order the album, go for it right here!

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